Only two magic stones remained.
One way or another, every magic stone used up to this point had yielded a skill. This was, in fact, an extremely rare occurrence for Rei and Set. After all, magic stones from monsters that were too weak, or stones that had already been used once, could not yield skills. In that sense, it was to be expected from magic stones belonging to monsters that dwelled in the Forest of Magic.
Granted, the majority of the massive horde that had attacked them was killed by Rei's magic, and many had been burned so thoroughly that not even their bodies—let alone their magic stones—remained. In that sense, the two magic stones before him had survived that Flame Wall. Though since the monsters themselves were dead, that expression might not be entirely accurate.
"Set, two left. Which one do you want?"
"Gurururu."
Even when asked to pick, there was no way to tell which magic stone came from which monster, so Set had no choice but to choose on instinct. It picked up the slightly larger stone in its mouth and swallowed it whole.
[Set has acquired the skill 'Crystal Breath Lv.2']
An announcement message echoed in his mind. Upon hearing it, Rei's face broke into an expression of surprise—no, of sheer astonishment.
Yesterday, Rei had fought the Crystal Dragon in the Forest of Magic. The Crystal Breath it had used was extraordinarily powerful. After all, it was a breath attack that trapped anything within range in crystal, which then shattered.
Of course, that was precisely because the Crystal Dragon was an extremely powerful High-Rank Monster—an S-Rank Monster—and the Crystal Breath it employed was undoubtedly at an overwhelmingly higher level than Set's Level 1.
(Well, it's possible it only looked like Crystal Breath but was actually a different skill.)
The very designation of "Crystal Dragon" was, after all, nothing more than Rei's guess based on its appearance. Given that, he couldn't entirely deny the possibility that it merely resembled Crystal Breath without actually being it.
Then again, the probability that it was exactly what he suspected was far higher.
"Alright, Set. Try using it."
"Gururururu!"
At Rei's request, Set immediately unleashed Crystal Breath. However, perhaps because it had only gone from Level 1 to Level 2, it merely coated the small target rock in crystal. It seemed slightly—truly only slightly—as if the crystal encasing the stone was a bit thicker than before. The difference from Level 1 amounted to only that much.
Even so, it was certain that the skill would be overwhelmingly enhanced upon reaching Level 5, so in that sense, it was undeniably a step forward.
(The problem is that monsters using a skill like Crystal Breath are rare. Using a magic stone from the same type of monster has no effect. ...When I think about it that way, getting Crystal Breath from the Crystal Dragon's magic stone is both pleasing and disappointing.)
Given how few monsters used Crystal Breath, being able to strengthen it with the Crystal Dragon's magic stone was a fortunate thing. But the Crystal Dragon was an S-Rank Monster. Thinking of it that way, he couldn't help but feel that a different skill might have been fine too.
(Well, it's not like it was definitely Crystal Breath, and there's no point thinking about it now.)
No matter how much Rei pondered it, he couldn't freely choose which skill to acquire. It wasn't uncommon to acquire a skill and find it was something he had never even imagined. However, since skills varied depending on the monster the magic stone came from, the resulting skill was likely one that the monster simply couldn't use in combat, or one it had the aptitude for but had never learned.
"Anyway, this is the last one. ...Let's see what skill I'll get."
Murmuring to himself, Rei tossed the final magic stone into the air and swung Death Scythe.
[Death Scythe has acquired the skill 'Magic Shield Lv.2']
An announcement message echoed in his mind.
"Seriously!?"
A voice of surprise slipped from Rei's mouth. Naturally—Magic Shield was a skill that generated a Shield of Light, possessing the ability to block any attack, albeit only once. It was a skill that had saved Rei from enemy attacks countless times. Now that it had reached Level 2, checking how it had been strengthened was the obvious next step.
"Magic Shield!"
The moment he activated the skill, Shields of Light appeared. However, there were two of them.
"This is..."
For Rei, having two Shields of Light was extremely welcome. After all, it meant any attack could be blocked twice.
"No, wait. Now that there are two Shields of Light, the defensive power of each one didn't get halved, did it?"
"Guru..."
Hearing Rei's words, Set purred as if to say, Aren't you worrying too much?
Then again, for Rei, Magic Shield was a skill he frequently used when fighting strong enemies. If the defensive power had been halved in exchange for producing two shields, he would need to overhaul his tactics against formidable foes.
"Set, sorry, but could you test it for me? Against the Shield of Light... let's see, use Power Crush."
Among Set's skills, only two had reached Level 6: Power Crush and Optical Camouflage. Optical Camouflage was a very powerful skill, but it simply made the user invisible and possessed no direct attack power. Though the prospect of a massive monster like Set attacking from an unknown direction was, for any enemy, an extremely vicious ability.
In any case, what Rei needed right now was the high direct attack power that Power Crush provided.
"Gurururu..."
Naturally, Set had no desire to launch such an attack at Rei. Addressing the reluctant griffon, Rei moved the Shield of Light. By default, it floated around Rei, positioning itself so as not to obstruct him, but if he willed it, he could move it freely. Perhaps due to the skill's restrictions, he couldn't use it to defend an ally standing about ten meters away.
"Guru."
Since it wasn't near Rei, Set agreed to attack with Power Crush. It moved to a spot slightly away from the Shield of Light Rei had positioned, took a running start, and slammed a foreleg strike directly into it.
"Gurururururu!"
Set's strike, enhanced by Power Crush, carried overwhelming destructive power. With a sharp ringing sound, the blow was blocked by the Shield of Light—and, perhaps judging that it had done its job, the shield faded away.
"I see. Judging from that strike, the performance of each Shield of Light hasn't decreased. It seems safe to assume there are simply two of them now. Still..."
"Guru?"
Rei had been satisfied with the skill's enhancement and was looking pleased, but then his expression shifted to one of thought. Seeing this, Set tilted its head as if to ask what was wrong.
At Set's endearing behavior, Rei stroked its head and continued.
"No, it's just... if Magic Shield was strengthened, that means among the enemies chasing us yesterday, there should have been monsters that could use Magic Shield—or if not exactly that, a similar skill. So I was thinking, maybe they didn't need to charge into the Flame Wall like that."
A Shield of Light that could block any attack once. If those monsters had possessed such a skill, they shouldn't have needed to die.
"Gururururu."
Set heard Rei's explanation and purred in understanding. Having seen Magic Shield countless times, Set could agree that it would undoubtedly block Rei's magic at least once. That was precisely why Rei's question—why hadn't the monsters used that skill?—was perfectly reasonable.
"Well, if they had used the skill, that would have been troublesome in its own way, so in that sense, we were lucky."
If the monster that possessed the Magic Shield magic stone had actually used the skill, there was a high probability it would have survived and fled into the Forest of Magic. Had that happened, Rei wouldn't have been able to raise Magic Shield's level. In that sense, it was definitely fortunate that the monster with this stone hadn't used its skill and had charged thoughtlessly into the Flame Wall.
"Anyway, that's all the magic stones used up. At the very end, I never expected to get skills from all six."
"Gurururu."
Set purred in agreement. Then again, for Rei, it was debatable whether he should be purely happy about acquiring skills from all six stones. Of course, acquiring skills from every single one was something to celebrate. But the fact that the flames from Rei's magic had burned away not just the bodies but the magic stones themselves was, looking back on it now, clearly a waste.
Yesterday alone, he had fought the S-Rank Monster Crystal Dragon during the day, battled the A-Rank Monster Chimera, and—while not on the level of those two—faced numerous other opponents that could fairly be called High-Rank Monsters. The fog monster in particular had an unclear rank but was undeniably a troublesome foe. He had defeated it by concentrating to his absolute limit, but in doing so, Rei had become acutely aware of just how exhausted he was—and that awareness caused the fatigue to manifest visibly throughout his body.
On top of that, spending two nights and three days in the Forest of Magic—even sleeping at the Hidden Base, a safe location—had naturally resulted in an accumulation of mental fatigue. In that state, luring nearly thirty flying monsters and wiping them out in one fell swoop had left no room for fine-tuning his spell's power.
Rei understood that. He understood it, but even so, thinking about it now, getting only six magic stones out of thirty monsters made him feel he had let a significant opportunity slip away.
(They were monsters active in the Forest of Magic, and at night no less. If the magic stones had survived... I probably could have acquired or strengthened around thirty skills.)
Thinking of it that way, he still felt a pang of regret. But regret it as he might, what was done was done. At most, if he ever came to the Forest of Magic again, he would use weaker magic repeatedly and defeat the weaker monsters—weak only by Forest of Magic standards—without burning their magic stones.
(Or maybe, even if I come to the Forest of Magic, I could stay airborne without ever landing and lure monsters away by flying through the sky at night.)
Ultimately, the biggest factor in yesterday's failure was Rei's exhaustion. In other words, the problem was fighting on the ground and getting tired; he should have just targeted the flying enemies from the start. Though whether he could actually resist the temptation when faced with the Forest of Magic—that treasure trove of unknown monsters—was another matter entirely.
(Besides, with that approach, the fact that the bodies get burned means I can't even tell what kind of monster corpse it was. That's the real problem.)
Later on, if he used a magic stone from a monster he defeated somewhere else entirely, only to find he couldn't acquire a new skill because he had already used a Forest of Magic magic stone for the same one... that would leave him with a rather unpleasant feeling.
"Gururururu?"
Set purred at the deep-in-thought Rei, as if to ask what was wrong.
"No, it's nothing. I was just thinking that since skill acquisition is done, it's about time we headed back to Gilm. ...You want to play in Gilm too, right, Set?"
"Guru!"
Naturally, Set loved being with Rei. But at the same time, it also loved playing with everyone in Gilm. It hadn't even been ten days since they'd left. Even so, just as Rei said, Set wanted to play with its many friends there—and so it agreed with Rei's words.
[Set]
'Water Ball Lv.5' 'Fire Breath Lv.4' 'Wind Arrow Lv.4' 'King's Intimidation Lv.4' 'Poison Claw Lv.6' 'Size Change Lv.2' 'Tornado Lv.4' 'Ice Arrow Lv.5' 'Optical Camouflage Lv.6' 'Magic Eye of Shock Lv.3' 'Power Crush Lv.6' 'Sense of Smell Enhancement Lv.5' 'Bubble Breath Lv.3' 'Crystal Breath Lv.2' new 'Earth Arrow Lv.2' 'Power Attack Lv.1' 'Magic Reflection Lv.1' 'Acid Breath Lv.2' 'Wing Blade Lv.2' 'Underground Dive Lv.1' 'Thunder Breath Lv.1' 'Fog Lv.1'
[Death Scythe]
'Corrosion Lv.6' 'Flying Slash Lv.5' 'Magic Shield Lv.2' new 'Power Slash Lv.5' 'Wind Hand Lv.4' 'Terrain Manipulation Lv.5' 'Pain Burst Lv.4' 'Penetrate Lv.4' 'Multi Slash Lv.5' 'Blizzard Slash Lv.4' 'Flying Needle Lv.1' 'Underground Transfer Slash Lv.1'
Magic Shield: Creates a Shield of Light that blocks an enemy attack once. After blocking, it fades away like mist. The Shield of Light normally moves automatically so as not to interfere with Rei, but with conscious effort, he can move it freely. At Level 1, it generates one Shield of Light; at Level 2, it generates two.
Crystal Breath: A breath that imprisons the opponent in crystal. Currently, since the level is low, it only has enough power to coat the target in crystal. However, even so, it can somewhat restrict the opponent's movements.